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FridayMusings since 2003
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
Helping define Livonia's
Quality of Life
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I want normal back in my life. Please just the facts no more false rants. | |
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I was watching the Tigers game, feeling the normalcy of life after returning from the Faith and Blue gathering at Nehasil Park, basking in the sunshine and exchanging hugs with Kelli Whitlock, Kate Mackie, and a firm handshake from Dave Laycock. However, as I arrived home and seeing my neighbors arrive home, I was starkly reminded of the global crisis; they have eight siblings living in Lebanon who have had to relocate four times in the past three weeks.
I watched on television a former president vehemently criticize the situation in Aurora, Colorado, claiming it was overrun by Venezuelan gangs—a claim refuted by the mayor of Aurora, a former Republican congressman, the police chief, and the typewriter.
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I visit Aurora three times a year to shop, watch Little League baseball, and dine out. I've never encountered a war zone there.
Grandson Leo, at 5, is preparing for kindergarten and enjoying playing outside, not equipping himself for a war zone. Granddaughter Maya, at 3, is not preparing for war in Aurora, is instead studying ballet and going to the gym every day with her dad.
Alarmed by the former president's comments, I reached out to my son Paul in Aurora to discuss whether he should move. He was confused, as he hadn't encountered such claims; the topic wasn't a conversation piece among Aurora's residents. He noted that only the national media and Republican candidates were discussing it, not the 450,000 locals.
I'm looking forward to returning to Aurora for Christmas, bringing gifts instead of needing guns for protection.
The former president is now criticizing Detroit, attacking it with remarks about its crime rate and suggesting that without his election, the rest of the country would resemble Detroit. However, many cities would envy Detroit's resilience, revitalization, and growth.
Kathy and I relish our drives through Detroit, observing the construction of new homes, and the wonderful neighbors engaging in everyday activities like raking leaves and painting their houses, embodying a typical urban existence. We love exploring Corktown, trying out new eateries, and checking out upcoming hotels. The excitement of nearly a million NFL draft visitors, the packed crowds at Lions games, and the buzz around the Tigers are palpable.
I yearn for that sense of normality. I seek facts, not tirades; truth, not fearmongering tales. I crave that normality and will cast my vote for those who support and uplift our nation, not for those who belittle, ridicule, and disparage good people and communities.
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Wilson Barn is the place to be for the Annual Pumpkin Festival
A Normal Saturday and Sunday in Livonia
Wilson Barn Pumpkin Fest Weekend #2 is on this weekend. RAIN OR SHINE! 11am-6pm
Lines are short and they have pumpkins, cider, donuts, hay bales, and corn stalks!
They have some amazing vendors here,so come out and support small local businesses!
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Faith and Blue:
a normal day in Livonia
Communities are stronger and safer when residents and law enforcement professionals can relate as ordinary people with shared values, hopes, and dreams. The partners who are part of National Faith & Blue Weekend believe we can find ways to work together around our many commonalities instead of being divided by our differences.
Livonia was a part of working together this past weekend. People have asked the typewriter what Faith and Blue is all about. So off Kathy and I went to explore once again the Saturday event in Livonia. Not to write about it or just to take pictures but to experience it first hand, again.
How refreshing to be out in the sun on a cool autumn day, walking into the Faith and Blue event with the sidewalk lined by pumpkins on one side and faith organizations on the other. Police officers passing out doughnuts and having conversations with families, and the American Cancer Society passing out early detection information in partnership with Trinity Health Livonia.
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Children in the bounce houses, parents smiling at the pink cancer awareness police car. Chatting up Fire chaplain Dr. Kate Mackie and Police chaplain Dr. Kellie Whitlock, both of Rosedale Gardens Presbyterian Church.
Or getting pictures with Paws. Smiles all around.
Faith & Blue was launched in 2020 by MovementForward, Inc., in collaboration with the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) at the U.S. Department of Justice.
The underlying concept was straightforward yet impactful — strengthening the connections between officers and residents to foster communities where everyone feels safe and included. Faith-based organizations play a crucial role in forging these connections, not only as the nation's largest community resource, with 65 million people participating in weekly events but also because they reflect the diversity of our nation. Additionally, they embody the American belief that we are all responsible for one another.
Faith & Blue was initiated to foster safer, more robust, equitable, and cohesive communities by fostering local collaborations between law enforcement professionals, residents, businesses, and community groups via the networks of local faith-based organizations.
The program seeks to recalibrate police-community relations through solution-oriented, in-person, socially distanced, and/or virtual activities collaboratively organized by faith-based or other community groups and law enforcement agencies.
A perfect day. Here is hoping that more faith groups in Livonia, in addition to the mainstream religions, will sign up to participate as Faith & Blue collaborates with the total community. This is a great start for a great afternoon. A step toward a normal Saturday. A community gathering.
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FridayMusings, alongside the Michigan Education Association, endorses four Livonia School Board Trustee candidates
and one Schoolcraft College Trustee candidate.
Engage and advocate for democracy.
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Livonia was founded by strong people, guided by their
Inner Values, working toward Equality.
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Part Two: On Monday Musings brought to our readers the living history embodied at the Annual Cemetary Walk. Today we continue bringing Livonia history alive in this article authored by Kathy Bilger, historian and awesome baker.
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As we approach the 75th anniversary of Livonia, I ask myself, what does Livonia stand for? Is it homes and schools? Jobs and factories? Stores and parks? Maybe all of it. But I look a little bit deeper, to an older Livonia, to a time when cars and malls didn’t exist, and there I find an answer.
The answer is buried in a small cemetery on the edge of our fair city. Cars hurry past hundreds of times a day without a thought. It’s on 6 Mile just east of Haggerty, tucked behind the Trinity Theater, and buried there are heroes. There is no historical marker, nor any cemetery name post, just simple grave markers that don’t match the heroes below. This is both our Quaker and our Underground Railroad cemetery.
They came for land, but this special group of Quakers came with values and a determination to create a home for all based on those values. Just to the north, Arthur Power and his men arrived near sunset on March 8, 1824, with axes in hand and felled the first tree. Thus began Power’s Settlement or, as Arthur Power preferred, Farmington. Soon Orthodox Quaker families would flock there to “Quakertown”.
Another branch of Quakers came from the same area but chose to settle Livonia instead. This branch upon which we built a foundation for Livonia was Hicksite Quaker. They built farms along the north and west side of Livonia. Their meeting house stands at Greenmead. They were the most liberal of the Quakers, following Elias Hicks and believing strongly and absolutely in the power of Equality. Livonia was declared the home of Hicksites, with the naming of Livonia as the place of the Quarterly Meeting in 1838.
In 1852, the Quakers of Livonia and Adrian, along with others of other faiths, formed the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society to lobby for the rights of enslaved people. Orthodox and Hicksite Quakers came together because “religious differences” were less important than the cause that spoke to their common values. (There is a lesson in this for everyone today). In 1855, Cyrus Fuller of Livonia was elected president, his brother Edwin was treasurer, and his sister-in-law Harriet became Vice President of MASS representing Wayne County. This was a first for women everywhere!
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October 11 and 12, 1856, defined Livonia like nothing else before or since. For on these days, the 3rd Annual Michigan Anti-Slavery Convention was held at the Union Society building (now the Trinity Theater) that sits in front of that small cemetery. Here Wiliam Lloyd Garrison, Giles Stebbins, Laura Smith Haviland, and Thomas Chandler came. Sojourner Truth, pictured here, would open the afternoon session with a song. Arthur Power encouraged all to use the ballot box in vindication of the principles. Resolutions followed to repudiate churches that supported slavery and to speak out on the sins of slavery. Harriet Fuller and Jacob Walton wrote fast and furiously to capture each resolution presented, the basis of each being that equality is a right upon which God himself would not infringe.
They each left the convention, energized to continue the work of freedom. Harriet Fuller guarded the meeting notes, sold the abolitionist newspaper “The Bugle” door to door, and lectured where she could. Cyrus and Edwin did the same. Laura Smith Haviland had her school in Adrian and raised money with Nathan Power for land in Canada for freedom seekers. Families like Powers, Laphams, Waltons and others risked their lives and property to get people to safety. Some, including Nathan Power and David Rowland, ran for political office.
Those voices are quiet now. But the legacy of a weekend in 1856 remains for our city. We were founded by strong people, guided by their Inner Light, working toward Equality.
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Madonna University presents James Jelasic in Internatwional Steinway Recital
October 27
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Madonna University is proud to host a piano recital by International Steinway Artist James Jelasic on Sunday, October 27 at 3:00 p.m. in Kresge Hall. Mr. Jelasic, a Fulbright Scholar and recording artist originally from Dearborn, MI, will play works by Chopin and Scriabin on Madonna’s newly refurbished Steinway B Grand Piano.
Tickets are $20/person for guests 18 and older and $5/person for guests younger than 18. Please register and purchase your tickets here.
The Steinway B Grand Piano was refurbished last year through a generous grant from the Hardies Family Trust Fund of Livonia.
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State Representative Matt Koleszar responds to MIRS: | |
"Imagine my surprise to learn that my opponent did not vote in nearly 20 state and local elections in the past decade, according to a Michigan Information & Research Service Inc report.
"Before this year, when he arrived on the primary ballot himself, he did the bare minimum and only voted in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections (he sat out the primaries).
"Being a State Representative is not a job I take lightly. It takes a serious commitment to show up and do the work, day in and day out."
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St. Matthew's is ready for Halloween
October 19
1:00 - 3:00
| Lori Miller announces extended election hours to serve Livonia voters | |
Rotary Clubs join for Annual Community Spaghetti Dinner
October 23
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Livonia Community Foundation Annual Fun, Fundraiser
October 24
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This Annual LCF Fun (d) raiser will be held at the One Under.
Tickets are $50 ($30 of which is tax deductible) and are available on their website or online.
Website: https://livoniafoundation.org/events
Purchase Tickets direct link: https://app.dvforms.net/api/dv/q16k04
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Dennis Wright Memorial
October 27
| A memorial will be held for our fellow Rotarian and ex-mayor of Livonia Dennis Wright on Oct. 27 from 1 pm to 4 pm at the Laurel Manor. | | |
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Mail Address
19514 Bainbridge 48152
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Cell address
734-674-5871
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Archive--Bill Joyner's FridayMusings | |
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The typewriter is not available for phone calls or emails Saturday and Sunday. Mental health and rehabilitation time. Out and about enjoying life.
What motivates FridayMusings:
We can't only define Livonia as taking small steps toward maintaining the way things were. That will give us mediocre outcomes. Our goal needs to be innovative and transformative.
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